


For Mom

by Gumnut



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, Leaving Home, Pre-IR, Younger Tracys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:48:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29894463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gumnut/pseuds/Gumnut
Summary: Embarking on a world altering plan like International Rescue means leaving some things behind. Sometimes the things you leave behind are the reasons why you set out on the journey in the first place.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the paddocks of the agricultural school next to my daughters high school which I sit next to while waiting for the traffic to clear.

It was morning. The birds were making their dawn ruckus, one that usually irritated a pillow onto his head as the sun peeked over the horizon. Today was different, though.

The grass was wet with dew and his boots shone as he stepped through it. The sun cast ever so long shadows through the crisp air, streaking the paddocks with stripes.

A cow moaned in the distance.

Behind him the Tracy homestead rose out its protective windbreaks, the two storey farmhouse old, but well kept. None of its inhabitants were asleep. The noise had been loud and one of the reasons he had skedaddled out into the fields.

For a moment of quiet.

But it wasn’t what he found.

Because it was too quiet.

The birds still sang. Insects still rose and buzzed about. But gone were the familiar sounds of the functioning farm. The chickens had been passed onto a neighbour. Polly the trash disposal pig had retired similarly and the horses…

He didn’t want to think about the horses.

But it was all for a positive reason. All for a future of doing what was right, for the lives they could save.

But a small part of him longed for home.

Because this was home.

How many times had he curled up under that tree with a sketchbook?

The table outside the barn had seen his first engineering triumph in the form of a reassembled and much improved bicycle.

And Mom.

Mom was here.

Her ghost could almost be seen moving about, laughing, loving.

He closed his eyes.

A hand landed on his shoulder. “It’s not easy, is it?” Scott’s voice was soft and full of understanding.

Virgil pressed his lips together and shook his head.

“We’ll take it all with us. It will be a new home.”

Virgil nodded.

Scott sighed and his arm slipped around Virgil’s shoulders pulling him in tight. “Hey, I hear you managed to get the soundproofing into the villa. No more waking up with the birds.”

A sideways glance in his big brother’s direction. “Define the word ‘bird’.”

A cackle and that arm got even tighter. But again, quiet. “You know she will always be with us, that she would love what we are doing in her name.”

“Yeah, I know. We’re doing it for mom.”

A cranky bird flew overhead and squawked at them.

A breeze washed over the grass.

It was going to be so different. Amazing, fascinating, exciting, but so, so different.

Gordon was suddenly heard yelling Alan’s name. His voice carried through the trees and vibrated blades of grass.

Scott sighed. “C’mon, bro, we have littler bros to herd.”

A grunt and Virgil turned to face his brother. “Yeah.”

Blue eyes fixed him where he stood as both hands landed on his shoulders. “She will always be with us.” Azure punctuation sunk into his bones.

Another bird squawked in agreement.

Ever so quiet. “Yeah, she will.”

-o-o-o-


	2. Chapter 2

Scott bundled Virgil back inside and in the direction of his room. His engineer brother was quiet and it worried him a little. Virgil had been all over this project. Enthusiastic, literally bouncing like one of the two youngest on a sugar high. Perhaps it had only really hit home now exactly what they were giving up?

Virgil was the solid and dependable one, but he was also the sensitive one. It was odd that he hadn’t said anything earlier. Hadn’t reacted.

Scott sighed to himself.

It was understandable.

Far too understandable.

He shoved the ball of emotion to one side and straightened as Alan pushed past him in the hallway holding something to his chest. An angry Gordon tore after him as the youngest barrelled through the front door and out onto the circular drive.

“I’m going to kill, you Alan! You hear me?!”

The move was obviously affecting some more than others.

The wooden floor creaked as Scott strode the length of it. A familiar noise, one often sought in the middle of the night. It was a sound that relaxed him, knowing that Dad was finally home, no matter the hour. That his family was under one roof again.

Dad, of course, wasn’t home right now. He was on the Island finalising preparations for the family to join him. It was Grandma who was today’s marshal.

“John, please be a dear and drag your two youngest brothers back in by the ears and tell them to clean up this mess.” She gestured with a sigh at the pile of Lego scattered all over the kitchen.

John nodded and jogged out of the room and down the hallway.

Why the Lego was out and not packed away ready for transport was a question that had Scott pursing his lips.

There was a sudden squawk from beyond the front door that signalled their astronaut brother had found his first target.

“How is your brother?”

Scott startled and blinked. “Which one?”

Grandma’s lips twisted into a half smile as she shovelled Lego off the table and into a bucket. “The one you just chased out of the fields. Is Virgil homesick already?”

“No. No.” A sigh. “I think it has just finally sunk in as to what we are leaving here.” Scott picked up a piece of Lego and chucked it into the bucket. “And who.”

His grandmother caught his hand. “Scott?”

Okay, so perhaps it was contagious. Perhaps misery did love company, because yes, it did feel like they were leaving their mother behind. All his memories of her circled around this place. Her voice rang through the woodwork, her feet clattered down the stairs. He would say that the piano still sung with her music, but that had shipped last week leaving a gaping hole in the living room.

“She is with you, honey, you know that.” A small sad smile. “She won’t be left behind.”

“I know, Grandma.” His fingers scooped up a fist full of Lego.

It bit into his palm.

A shuffle of feet and Grandma tugged on the hand she had caught and pulled him close, one arm wrapping around him, while the other reached up and cupped his cheek. Voice soft. “Scott?” Startling blue eyes caught his.

“I’m okay. Just a little…sentimental.”

She tugged him a touch tighter. “She would love what you are doing in her name.”

The phrase echoed back at him, an almost duplicate of what he had said to Virgil.

So why was it harder to hear than to say?

“I know, Grandma. It’s just hard.”

She reached up and pulled him down a little, enough to peck a kiss on his cheek, before pulling him in tighter again. But she didn’t say anything further. Just held him.

And Scott was ever so grateful.

-o-o-o-


End file.
